Hawai’i demolishes Cal State Fullerton to halt 3-game slide

HONOLULU – In one of the deepest ruts of the season, the Rainbow Warriors finally answered the call. 

The University of Hawai’i men’s basketball team turned in its best performance of the season on Saturday night, walloping Cal State Fullerton (6-17, 1-10 Big West), 82-57 behind a dominant effort on the glass and a fast-paced offense. Harry Rouhliadeff recorded his first career double-double, tallying a team-high 14 points while setting a new personal best with 11 rebounds in the victory. 

Sophomore captain Tom Beattie also poured in 14 points while handing out a career-high five assists and playing some strong defense as the Rainbow Warriors held the Titans to 37% shooting overall and 4-of-17 from 3-point range. Ten different players scored for Hawai’i (13-9, 5-6 Big West), just the fourth time in 22 games that the team has accomplished that feat. 

Losers of three straight and four of their last five, Saturday’s performance from the opening tip was a topic of discussion amongst the Rainbow Warriors leading up to the contest. After starting slowly on the road and putting themselves in too big of a hole climb out of, UH wanted to set the tone from the first whistle and not allow for the extended offensive lulls to make an appearance all night. 

“I think it started a little bit the other day,” head coach Eran Ganot said about the early offensive cohesion. “That group started the second half two nights ago and were awesome, and today they were awesome both halves … The bench was great, [too].” 

Despite multiple shot clock malfunctions causing for a stop-and-go start, Hawai’i was able to race out to a 22-4 advantage behind a multitude of stops, 3-point makes and overall beautiful basketball. After opening the night’s scoring, Cal State Fullerton hit one of their next ten shots from the floor, missed a pair of free throws and turned it over twice as the Rainbow Warriors ripped down nearly every miss from the Titans. 

The lead grew as large as 21 in the first half before the Titans started to find some success on the offensive end of the floor, cutting the Rainbow Warrior advantage down to 14 before Hawai’i scored five of the final seven points of the half to head into the locker room leading 37-20. The UH defense held Cal State Fullerton to 22% shooting on 27 attempts throughout opening 20 minutes, not allowing a single make from distance while outrebounding the Titans, 25-16 (7-4 on offensive glass). 

“We didn’t want to let [the shot clock malfunctions] affect us,” said Harry Rouhliadeff when asked about the importance of the strong start. “We wanted this win really bad, so we didn’t let that affect us … We wanted to come out with a lot of fire, a lot of energy and get this place booming.” 

Cal State Fullerton used the break to reset, starting the second half with a push to pull within 15 before Hawai’i rocketed out of orbit again. Back-to-back dunks from Tom Beattie and Rouhliadeff helped fight off the Titans’ scoring out of halftime before a pair of buckets from Jerome Palm capped a 7-0 run to extend the UH lead past 20. 

Hawai’i continued the onslaught, seeing Ryan Rapp’s lone made 3-pointer give the Rainbow Warriors a 70-40 advantage with under nine minutes to play. With players firing on all cylinders, Eran Ganot pointed to the end of his bench with 4:07 left in regulation to give reserve underclassmen Logan Robeson, Osa Obasohan and AJ Economou legitimate run along with Marcus Greene and Palm to close out the domination by UH. 

Despite the wide margin, the Hawai’i reserves took the final minutes seriously as the ball continued to flow around the arc offensively, leading to Robeson lighting the human victory cigar by drilling his first 3-pointer of the season off an extra pass from Obasohan. As the ball sliced the nylon, the bench exploded. 

“They work so hard,” said sophomore captain Tom Beattie of the group of young Rainbow Warriors that closed the game. “Like [Coach Ganot] said in the locker room, we’ve got good players playing behind good players, so I think 1-through-15 we have a ridiculously deep team. Those dudes work incredibly hard, so it was good to see them on the court.” 

Cal State Fullerton would make one last late push, scoring the final seven points of the night to wrap up a rough showing for the Titans in the islands. After allowing him to go off from 29 points in the first meeting between teams, Hawai’i held CSUF leading scorer Donavan Oday to 13 points and nine total shots. 

Marcus Greene and Akira Jacobs each finished with 10 points for Hawai’i, the third straight game that Jacobs has reached double digits and the first game in double figures for Greene since December 23 in a loss to Nebraska. Reserve center Jerome Palm enjoyed his best game as a Rainbow Warrior, turning in seven points and a season-high nine rebounds while going a perfect 3-for-3 from the free throw line. Gytis Nemeikša started to pull himself out of a recent cold spell as well, scoring eight points and grabbing six rebounds while committing four fouls in on 12 minutes of work. 

“We have starters coming off the bench,” Ganot stated while talking about the depth of the team. “Marcus had a breakthrough today, so did Gytis and the attitudes are great. [That] gives you a chance every night.” 

Hawai’i will now hit the road once again, hoping to start a winning streak with round two against Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara on deck. The Rainbow Warriors first face Cal Poly on Thursday with tip-off scheduled for 5 p.m. HT, looking for a season sweep of the Mustangs.